The day book. (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, January 16, 1912, Image 9

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

ft ,THE WORK OF JANE ADDAMS-The value of,Jane Addams' sociological writing lies in the deftness with which she conceals her own conclusions under a smooth,sympathetic ripple which permits the reader to fancy himself profound in that he sees so clearly what Miss Addams apparently failsto grasp.One cannot read her observations upon the under-paid workinggirl without having whatever preconceived theories of the remedyfor the social evil given new direction. The clumsy moralist seestoo often, in the bedizened creature of the streets, a victim of vanity.Miss Addams beholds in the gew-gaws, not an end, but themeans. The "trade" demands appearance ofvgaudiness and gaiety,just as the saloon tacks on the bright lights and the tintinnabulationof real or alleged music. Miss Addams perceives in the snap-notionof a minimum wage law a certain possible good in selected cases,where the under-paid woman has but her own support to care forbut she finds, in her painstaking and tireless investigations, thatnearly all working girls are burdened with the support of others.They "go wrong," in thousands of cases, from sacrificial motivesthat are angelically pure, so far as the, spiritual side goes. They sellthe body, not for the body's own food or drink or ease or rich apparel, but barter it secretly for money needed "by the aged, weakand helpless of their own blood.Where a girl gets $5 or $6 a week in factory or store; and whereshe must have $15 or $20 to keep want from her dear ones, what"minimum wage" of $10 or$12 would suffice?The facts are, gentlemen and ladies, that you all have a theory,growing out of the ancient tradition that the girl and woman wageearner was working either for pin-money, or at- the worst, her ownliving.a You must know that most of these persons, with the delicacydue to sex, laboring under handicaps and discriminations againstthat sex, are mainstays of families little matriarchs.The ,woman's love and loyalty to her own operate against her.Where the boy will cut himself loose, if necessary, from parentsand younger brothers and sisters and say, "It is as much as I cando now to take care of myself," the girl pours ever her chastity uponthe altar of family devotion.' It's too bad King Winter andSummer's queen cannot.be married. The match might temperf. the dispositions of both.He who burns the midnight oilis likely to run short of gasolinewhen he tried to speed up nextday. vci .jvAitAA j3i4i.Sv.vr4: